Records available for viewing on JACAR

The National Archives of Japan preserves and manages important public documents and so forth as historical records transferred from national institutions. JACAR is proceeding to make available mainly records related to pre-World War II decision-making and the processes and circumstances of implementing those decisions. We provide extracts at the subject (item) level related to the four major series (Dajō Ruiten, Kōbun Roku, Kōbun Ruishū, and Kōbun Zassan) produced as the records of Japan’s central government by the Council of State and the Cabinet, along with items such as Goshōmei Genpon (original documents promulgating laws and treaties, with the sign and seal of the Emperor) and Returned Documents (records that were seized by the Allied powers at the war’s end and returned by the U.S. government to Japan in 1973). Note that the viewing of images of the records held by the National Archives of Japan is undertaken by following a link to that institution’s digital archive.

The Diplomatic Archives is the public records archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, handling the preservation, management, and making publicly available diplomatic historical records. The historical materials in the collection include “Prewar Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” which are records attendant upon diplomatic activities from the Meiji period through World War II; “Postwar Diplomatic Records,” made available in keeping with the system for releasing such materials; the Tsūshin Zenran and Zoku Tsūshin Zenran, which together collect diplomatic records from the Bakumatsu (final years of the Edo) period; treaties from the Bakumatsu period onward; sovereign messages and personal letters by heads of state from the Bakumatsu and early Meiji periods to the end of World War II; reports and other diplomatic records; and personal documents and correspondence.
The “Prewar Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” are one of the primary holdings of the Diplomatic Archives. These documents, which include telegrams and official communications exchanged with diplomatic establishments abroad, have been organized and compiled into approximately 40,000 files. These files in turn have been divided up into the two series indicated below.

The Center for Military History at the Ministry of Defense’s National Institute for Defense Studies holds approximately 60,000 volumes of historical records related to the Imperial Army and 42,000 related to the Imperial Navy. These historical materials consist of three types: materials returned by the United States (primarily materials seized by U.S. forces after the end of the Greater East Asia War [the Pacific War]); materials organized and stored by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Bureau of Repatriation; and materials collected by or donated to the National Institute for Defense Studies for the compilation of an official military history of the Greater East Asia War and for research on military history. JACAR has been gradually obtaining those records from the National Institute for Defense Studies that have been digitized and releasing them in electronic form. Currently, JACAR has made available “Rikugunshō Dainikki” (Document Files of the Ministry of the Army, from 1868 to 1945) and “Kōbunbikō” (Document Files of the Ministry of the Navy, from 1868 to 1937).